Jeff Cogen Served as Reference When Woman He Was Having An Affair With Got Promotion

County chair previously denied helping Sonia Manhas get $98,000-a-year job

Jeff Cogen

On Tuesday night Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen said he'd had no role in a promotion given last September to Sonia Manhas, the county employee with whom he was having an affair when she got new job and a big pay increase.

But Manhas listed only two references in her application for the job. One of them was Jeff Cogen.


As WW reported on Thursday, Manhas was in fact the only person interviewed for a job that gave her a 20 percent pay increase. After her promotion to policy and planning director of the county Health Department and a subsequent 4 percent increase on July 1, she now makes $103,299 annually.

On Monday morning, all five county commissioners received an anonymous email that claimed Manhas "was basically appointed into her current position as opposed to a far, transparent process."

Cogen denied that claim in an interview with WW on Tuesday night. 

"That is completely false," he said then. "There is no truth to that at all."

But on Thursday night, the county released documents relating to Manhas' promotion to WW and other media.

And the documents show that Cogen's denial that he was involved is untrue. When Manhas submitted her application, she listed as a reference the highest ranking official in Multnomah County—Jeff Cogen.

Watch wweek.com as this story develops.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.